Companies are tying artificial intelligence to revenue, cost savings and productivity, but most have not disclosed a separate measure of its earnings effect, leaving limited basis for comparing results across businesses.
Banco Santander said in an Oct. 28 results release that AI generated €194 million in business value during the first nine months of 2026. The bank said the total reflected added revenue, expense savings and reduced provisions for loan losses, but did not provide a category breakdown or explain its calculation.
Meta said its AI work was helping its advertising business by making recommendations more effective and improving how it turned user engagement into ad revenue. The company’s third-quarter revenue rose 26% year over year to $64.601 billion. Ad impressions increased 10%, and the average price per ad rose 14%; Meta did not quantify AI’s share of those results.
Meta’s costs and expenses climbed 68%, including a $9.89 billion legal charge. Capital expenditures totaled $34.91 billion, and free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion. Those figures cover the broader business and do not identify AI-specific costs or returns.
Alphabet reported that Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.709 billion in the third quarter. The company cited demand for enterprise AI infrastructure and solutions, along with core cloud services and sales of TPU systems. It did not attribute the full increase to AI.
Novartis reported core operating income of $6.036 billion, up 10% at constant currencies. Reported operating income was $1.843 billion, down 61% at constant currencies; a partial write-down related to the del-desiran asset largely accounted for the decline. CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC that he had seen AI make a tangible difference to the company’s profit and loss statement, but Novartis’ results release did not quantify an AI contribution.
Standard Chartered reported third-quarter operating income of $5.8 billion, up 14% year over year at constant currency excluding notable items. Operating expenses rose 9% on the same basis. CNBC reported that CFO Manus Costello connected AI with revenue growth and operating leverage; the bank did not separate AI’s contribution. CNBC also reported that Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said AI had not yet delivered meaningful companywide gains. Carlsberg reported revenue growth of 4.9% without linking it to AI.
Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index counted $581.69 billion in global corporate AI investment in 2025, up 129.9% from 2024. The total includes acquisitions, minority investments, private funding and public offerings, so it does not measure companies’ operating expenses or capital expenditures.
Novartis has scheduled its fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results for Feb. 3, 2027. Standard Chartered lists its fourth-quarter and full-year results for Feb. 19, 2027.
